Sid Maurer is a man with many stories.
His long career in the world of Art and Music
began at seventeen when he was hired as
assistant art dire ctor
at Columbia Records in New York City, where he
spent weekends playing trumpet in Jazz clubs for
extra money. In the period that followed, the
music business exploded, and Maurer worked
designing album covers and promotional material
for popular artists.
His co-worker at the time: a young artist by the
name of Andy Warhol.
As Andy left to pursue a career in "serious"
art, Maurer expanded his commercial art studio
to tackle a wide range of projects for the music
and film industries. His position brought him
into contact with a group of artists whose names
are well-recognized today, from Pollack to
Rauschenberg, and Maurer was strongly influenced
by their work and ideas as he developed his own
unique style of painting.
Throughout the mid-sixties, Maurer continued his
work for the music industry. He worked with
famed British recording artist Donovan,
developing album covers, poster designs, and
even a film for Warner Brothers. It was during
this period that Maurer's work as a painter
first gained recognition, appearing in galleries
in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris.
In the early nineties, Maurer realized that the
empire of music and art that he had helped to
build left him little time to pursue his true
passion: painting. He moved to Atlanta where he
has lived ever since, developing a vast catalog
of works and perfecting his personal style. In
the last decade, his work has hung in a wide
variety of venues, including the
Georgia Capitol, the
Carnegie Museum in Oxnard, California, and
the
U.C.L.A. campus.
His
commissions include work for organizations like
ESPN and MotorSport America magazine, as
well as for individuals such as
David Bowie,
Boy George, and his old friend
Donovan.
His recent works vary widely in subject matter,
addressing fascinatingly disparate elements
within our culture.
Maurer's series "Vanishing
Georgia", made up of 30 paintings, depicts
key events and periods in the history of his new
southern home. He also celebrates the heroes of
our culture in "Sport
Legends", as well as the personalities that
entertain us in series' such as "Movie
Stars" and "Famous
Musicians".
As a painter, Maurer creates large mixed media
pieces that are very much a product of his
varied training and experience. His style
combines bold, dynamic colors and strokes with
painstaking layouts and typographical elements.
The result is the unique blend of a painter's
passion tempered with the calculating
compositional eye of a graphic designer. He
explores his themes and subject matter primarily
through symbols and personalities evoking pride,
nostalgia, and hope.
His newest work, from the series "America,
America", and "The
Great Americans", depicts the symbols of our
nation, as well as the heroes to whom we owe our
freedom (from George Washington to Martin Luther
King). These works were born of Maurer's
reaction to the 9/11 tragedy and the apathy
toward America that he perceived on the part of
many of her citizens. As the child of immigrant
Jews who escaped the Holocaust and as a
participant in American art and music, he has a
strong emotional attachment to his subject.
He challenges us in his painting and in his
words:
"Wake up America! Celebrate your country and
its symbols of freedom. We Americans have had
many father figures: Washington, Lincoln, and
Martin Luther King, among them. They belong not
only in our hearts and memories, but also on the
walls of our homes, workplaces, and public
buildings; they deserve that honor."
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